1866. | Synthetical Chemistry. 37 
by means of peroxide of manganese at a low red heat, and s0 
cyanate of potash was obtained. The cyanate of potash was next 
eonverted into cyanate of ammonia by double decomposition with 
sulphate of ammonia. Thus cyanate of ammonia was produced 
from its elements by a process which, although indirect, still did 
not involve the action of either a plant or an animal. Cyanate of 
ammonia becomes wea when its solution in water is simply 
evaporated to dryness.” 
This simple account, by Wanklyn, of the first step in syn- 
thetical chemistry, is followed by a recital of the discoveries of 
succeeding chemists. Three years afterwards, Pelouze, a French 
investigator, produced formic acid; and we shall now give his 
process, as described by Wanklyn, with a hearty tribute of praise 
to both these chemists for the services they have rendered to 
science. 
Tf we pass nitrogen gas over a mixture of carbon and hydrate 
of potash heated to whiteness, cyanide of potassium is the result, 
and when that substance is boiled with a solution of hydrate of 
potash, formate of potash is produced. If we distil formate of 
potash with sulphuric acid, we then obtain formic acid, the acid 
of ants. This is the simple process by which Pelouze succeeded in 
building up formic acid, but the synthesis need not terminate here ; 
if we slightly retrace our steps, we find that from one and the 
same substance, formate of potash, not only an animal acid is ob- 
tainable, but a vegetable acid may also be synthetized. For if 
formate of potash be heated with hydrate of potash the result is 
oxalate of potash, and from this we can obtain Oxalie acid, similar 
to that extracted from common sorrel, Oxalis acetosella. 
Returning now to the history of this infant science, we find that 
in 1845, Kolbe, another German chemist, constructed Acetic acid 
from its elements, and the author of the discovery tells us that 
“if we could transform acetic acid into alcohol, and out of the 
latter could obtain sugar and starch, then we should be enabled 
to build up these common vegetable principles by the so-called 
artificial method from their most ultimate elements.” A portion 
at least of the German savant’s anticipations has been realized ; 
for we can build up alcohol from its morganic elements; indeed 
the discovery was in part made by our own chemists, Faraday and 
Hennell in 1820, before the synthesis of urea was effected by 
Wohler, but their experiments were only recently confirmed and 
synthetically completed by the more extended researches of Ber- 
thelot. The following must serve as a description of the mode 
of producing alcohol by synthesis, and we trust that it will be 
found generally intelligible. The first step in the synthesis is the 
production of acetylene. When the carbon points used for the 
electric light are ignited by an electric current in an atmosphere 
